Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food and Water Watch and renowned food and anti-fracking activist is to speak in Ithaca, NY, for the first time. Ms Hauter will speak and sign books on 24th September 2013, first at 3pm at the Statler Auditorium, Cornell University and later at 7pm Downtown at the First Baptist Church of Ithaca. The appearances will promote her book: Foodopoly: The Battle Over the Future of Food and Farming in America which examines corporate consolidation and control over our food system and what it means for farmers and eaters. Bufffalo Street Books, a community-owned cooperative bookstore, will be selling books at both events.

Both Events are FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC.

Wenonah Hauter is a renowned speaker, activist and organizer who has worked extensively on food, water, energy and environmental issues at the national, state and local levels. Food and Water Watch is a non-profit consumer rights group that focuses on government and corporate accountability. It is prominent in opposing irradiation, fracking, aquaculture, and GMOs, and supports organic, sustainable and small scale agriculture and access to safe water.

The Bioscience Resource Project and Independent Science Newsare sponsoring her visit to Ithaca. Dr. Jonathan Latham, Executive Director of The Bioscience Resource Project, will introduce Ms Hauter at the First Baptist Church.

“We are at a moment in history when it is becoming understood once again that agriculture and the food supply system are central to social welfare in its broadest sense. How we manage the food supply will largely determine whether our society becomes sustainable, our institutions democratic, the people healthy, the economy viable, and the climate stable. We invited Wenonah Hauter here because she, like Ithaca, has a strong tradition of independent thought and action. Both attributes are much needed here and now,” says Jonathan Latham, Executive Director of the Bioscience Resource Project.

From 1997 to 2005 Wenonah Hauter served as Director of Public Citizen’s Energy and Environment Program, which focused on water, food and energy policy. From 1996 to 1997, she was environmental policy director for Citizen Action, where she worked with the organization’s 30 state-based groups. From 1989 to 1995 she was at the Union of Concerned Scientists where, as a senior organizer, she coordinated broad-based, grassroots sustainable energy campaigns in several states. She has an M.S. in Applied Anthropology from the University of Maryland.

Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. “So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control.”